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ARTICLE VIEW:
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6 min read
Astronomers spot an interstellar object zipping through our solar
system
By Ashley Strickland, CNN
Updated:
8:26 PM EDT, Thu July 3, 2025
Source: CNN
A newly discovered object speeding through our solar system is sparking
excitement among astronomers because it’s not from around here.
Believed to be a comet, the object is only the third celestial body
from beyond our solar system ever to be observed in our corner of the
universe.
This interstellar visitor, now officially named 3I/ATLAS, became known
when the NASA-funded ATLAS (Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert
System) telescope in Chile reported spotting it on Tuesday. Since then,
astronomers reviewing archival observations from multiple telescopes
have tracked the object’s movements as far back as June 14 and found
that the comet arrived from the direction of the Sagittarius
constellation.
The comet’s speed and path through the solar system are two strong
indicators that it originated beyond our solar system, said Gianluca
Masi, astronomer and astrophysicist at the Bellatrix Astronomical
Observatory in Italy and founder and scientific director of the Virtual
Telescope Project. Masi has been making observations of the comet and
will stream a live view of the object on the beginning at 6 p.m. ET
Thursday.
The comet is moving at nearly 37 miles per second (60 kilometers per
second) — or 133,200 miles per hour (about 214,364 kilometers per
hour) — too fast to be a “local” object in our solar system, said
Teddy Kareta, an assistant professor at Villanova University near
Philadelphia.
“Objects bound to the sun — denizens of our solar system — take
paths around it that return to the same point,” Kareta wrote in an
email. “The Earth’s orbit is mostly circular, Pluto’s orbit is a
stretched oval, and many comets are very highly ‘eccentric’ —
their orbits are very long and narrow ellipses. This object’s path
through the solar system is very nearly a straight line.”
Tracking the object’s orbit also reveals the path it has taken to
reach our solar system, said Dr. Paul Chodas, director of NASA’s
Center of Near-Earth Object Studies at NASA’s Jet Propulsion
Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
“When we extrapolate its motion backwards in time we see that it
clearly originated from outside our Solar System,” Chodas wrote in an
email. “It must have originated from another Solar System and
probably has been travelling through interstellar space for millions of
years until it happened to encounter our Solar System.”
Since the initial sighting of the comet, located 420 million miles (675
million kilometers) from Earth, astronomers have rushed to observe the
object with telescopes around the world. One of those astronomers is
Kareta, who observed the comet, using the Lowell Observatory’s Lowell
Discovery Telescope in Flagstaff, Arizona, as soon as he heard about it
on the night of its discovery. He said he believes it will only be a
couple of weeks before just about every large telescope on Earth and in
space has made time to spot and track the comet.
“People are excited. Almost every planetary astronomer I know
immediately ran to a telescope or sent emails requesting telescope
(observing) time in the next few days,” said Kareta, formerly a
postdoctoral researcher at the Lowell Observatory. “While we might
have several months to study this fascinating object, the earlier we
can figure out how it works — how it is evolving, what strange or
unexpected properties it might have — the quicker we can plan for the
rest of its passage through the solar system.”
Anatomy of an interstellar object
Comet 3I/ATLAS follows two other intriguing interstellar objects,
called ISOs, that once passed through our solar system: in 2017 and in
2019. Both objects, also thought to be interstellar comets, stirred
intense interest. The of cigar-shaped ‘Oumuamua even ignited claims
that it could be an alien probe.
Little is known so far about comet 3I/ATLAS. Astronomers estimate its
diameter to be 12 miles (20 kilometers), with significant uncertainty
due to the object’s brightness, Masi said.
However, the comet seems to be the brightest and fastest of the three
interstellar objects discovered so far, Kareta noted.
3I/ATLAS is approaching our solar system from the Milky Way’s
galactic center, a different direction than the previous objects,
Chodas said.
The object has shown signs of cometary activity, including that it
appears to be losing mass like a comet. Comets are made of ice, frozen
gases and rock, and as they near stars such as the sun, heat causes
them to release gas and dust, which creates their signature tails. But
it’s not yet clear what kind of material is releasing from 3I/ATLAS
or what process is causing it, Kareta said.
“Considering the lingering disagreements about what caused the
orbital acceleration of the first ISO ‘Oumuamua, I’d be surprised
if diagnosing and understanding this wasn’t a priority for most,”
Kareta wrote in an email. “We don’t know where (3I/ATLAS) came from
yet, but as our understanding of the object’s orbit (increases) we
might be able to make some good guesses in a few months.”
The comet’s path
Astronomers said that the comet poses no threat to Earth and will
remain at least 150 million miles (240 million kilometers) from our
planet. The comet is currently about 416 million miles (670 million
kilometers) away from the sun and will make its closest approach to our
star around October 30 at a distance of 130 million miles (210 million
kilometers), according to .
The comet will also whip by Mars on October 2 at 18 million miles (30
million kilometers) from the red planet. This is a relatively close
pass, astronomically speaking. For reference, Earth is about 93 million
miles (150 million kilometers) from the sun.
The nearest the comet will come to Earth is 167 million miles (270
million kilometers) on December 19, Masi said.
Masi said the comet is currently visible in the Sagittarius
constellation, which is best viewed from the southern sky in the middle
of the night. While the full moon on July 10 will make 3I/ATLAS
difficult to observe, observations even with small telescopes should
improve in the coming months, he added.
Astronomers expect that the comet will remain visible for ground-based
telescope observations through September before disappearing from view.
It should reappear on the other side of the sun in early December,
enabling follow-up observations. It will be observable well into
mid-2026, Chodas said.
Further study could reveal whether comets look the same in other solar
systems, Kareta said.
Studying interstellar objects is also crucial to gaining a broader
understanding of planets beyond our solar system and how they form, he
added, describing these visitors as “some of the most fascinating
things we’ve discovered.”
“They’re comets and asteroids which formed around other stars —
the building blocks of planets around those faraway stars — which got
ejected into interstellar space which we later find as they zip through
our solar system,” Kareta said. “We want to measure everything we
can about these objects to compare them to our own local comets and
asteroids. They’re big questions, but the fact that we can make any
progress on them by studying these fascinating objects should tell you
why planetary astronomers are so excited to learn everything we can
about them.”
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